Hello and a very warm welcome to Psyche’s Nest, a newsletter which celebrates kinship with our living world, through re-pairing psyche with community and ecosystems
My name is Sally Gillespie, and I live on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Wangal people here in Australia where First Nations cultures have thrived for over 60,000 years, caring for lands and waters as their kin. Keeping this time scale and nature relatedness in mind is humbling and healing. As is learning from First Nations’ elders about becoming a good ancestor.
Psyche’s Nest explores ways to lovingly re-story Mother Earth in a time when the dominant culture is harmful and threadbare. Sometimes I write about climate and eco-psychology perspectives, sometimes I report back from my local community garden and permaculture food forest which helps keep me grounded, sane and inspired. I might also drop in some posts about dreamwork, because in my previous life I was a Jungian psychotherapist.
But in 2008 I had a huge dream in which I fell to Earth in the midst of a global climate catastrophe (as I write about in this post). I woke up from this dream vision knowing that the rest of my life would be focused on climate work. Not long after this, I conpleted a PhD exploring the psychological experience of people who are highly engaged with the climate crisis, me included. For this, I facilitated a year-long discussion group, at the end of which found that, although staying attuned with the climate and ecological crises is challenging, it can open up a world of meaning, inspiration and connection when we listen to and support one another. Ever since, I have been doing just that, facilitating conversations about where we are, how we feel and ways we can join with others to care for ourselves, our communities and Mother Earth. My book Climate Crisis and Consciousness: Re-imagining our world and ourselves shares some of my experiences and learnings along the way.
Psyche’s Nest explores this and more. I post every fortnight without a paywall. What I would love to receive back is comments, likes and shares when what I write resonates with you. Looking forward to getting to know you and hearing about your experiences of creating a mindful, Earth-honouring life.
